I think we all have empathy. We may not have enough courage to display it. -Maya Angelou
In August 1876, Alexander Graham Bell was able to conduct a demonstration of his telephone by using two telegraph offices that were five miles apart. Using only the existing telegraph lines, Bell was able to conduct the world’s first phone call in front of an audience of amazed onlookers. Later that year, Bell and his financial backers offered to sell the patent for the telephone to Western Union, but Western Union dismissed the telephone as a useless toy that would never amount to anything.[1]
Ideas and inventions are often developed before their use is fully realized or understood.
Social Media is yet another example.
This modern day soapbox allows us to have meaningful conversations. With social media we can really listen, gain empathy and understanding, which could eventually lead to us meet in the middle.
But instead, we use social forums to air public and private disagreements, instantaneously taking a stand and a side. We use social media to speak, not listen so we don’t fully realize the benefit of Mr. Bell’s invention, a device that allows for long distance conversations.
A recent example of such a disagreement is the movie American Sniper. The irony is the very freedom our military provides gives us the right to disagree. If we stopped to think about why we want to spread democracy; it’s because a truly democratic society would never vote to send their children to war.
When the phone was first invented, there were literal connections of wire to conversations. Today we are virtually connected to almost everyone on earth. Why not take the good intention of social media and really listen to each to create much needed social change?
Ask your children how they might use social media to help society.
Have a great week!
Tina Nocera, Founder
